Alma mater pays last tribute to Gaurav

Ranchi, Dec. 8: Virag Gaurav was headed for the Madhuban, a highway dhaba, for a long night of celebrations. The 26-year-old intern of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) had planned to party hard before turning into a full-fledged doctor, which he would become less than 24 hours later.

As he left with his friend around midnight from the RIMS hostel, Gaurav was in high spirits. Some minutes later and five km away, his Hero Honda bike was hit by an unknown vehicle, leaving the youth dead on the spot and his friend critically injured.

According to Sadar police station, the incident took place at around 1 am near the Booti More. The police were alerted by some passers-by who spotted the blood-splattered bodies and rushed them to RIMS.

While Gaurav was brought dead, the other boy, Dilip Kumar Choudhery who is a resident of Bihar?s Danapur, was admitted at the Neurosurgery ward with multiple head injuries.

Choudhery was Gaurav?s batchmate.

Nothing is known yet about the vehicle that killed Gaurav, who would have completed his one-year internship today and received a certificate qualifying him as a professional physician.

?It is a big tragedy. The boy would have become a doctor today. They were very happy and wanted to party hard before turning into professional doctors,? said Jagannath Prasad, the director of the institute.

His parents, residents of Muzaffarpur who reached within hours after being informed of the mishap by RIMS, were inconsolable. While his father, an assistant engineer in Bihar irrigation department, could not stop talking about his son, Gaurav?s mother could not stop crying.

The whole administration of the hospital and the students offered their last tributes to Gaurav.

?He was a wonderful student. He came from a middle class family and knew and understood the problems of his parents. We know him as a soft-spoken nice boy,? said one of his friend.Asked about the killer vehicle, an official of the Sadar police station said: ?We are searching for the vehicle. We suspect it was a speeding car that hit them. Gaurav?s head hit a tree and he died on the spot. The body has little injury marks. The other boy will be able to say what happened,? said the police officials.

Bloodspill on road

Two persons, including an infant, died and an elderly person was critically injured in different road accidents in and around Jamshedpur today.

A two-and-half-year boy died on the spot when a speeding Tata Sumo ran over him at Ghatshila.

Police sources said the child was playing in front of his residence with some children of his neighbourhood when the speeding Sumo hit him from behind.

In another accident, a retired employee of Tata Motors, Bhola Mistry, sustained serious head injuries after being hit by truck late last night at Jugsalai. He died at the Tata Main Hospital (TMH) early this monring.